Rain in Paradise

Sat, 01 Dec 2007 23:40:54 GMT

Rain in Paradise
DH/Epilogue compliant(pffft)
Rating: PG-13
Words: 560

No matter how good your umbrella, you will always get wet. Hermione muses on what life is really like after the war.

You’ve heard of us- everyone has. You know of it; that little happy-family, heartwarming moment you all have been told about, nineteen years after the wars end. I’ve always found it funny how they’ve portrayed that moment. Look at the golden trio and their wonderful lives and wonderful children and wonderful friendship, and didn’tcha know it, but it’s always sunny where they live! You’d never know from what everyone says that there was anything less than superb in our lives, now that Voldemort is defeated. I guess it’s just to keep the illusion of happy times going, to give people support and hope for the society that is still slowly being rebuilt. Sometimes I wish that I could go back to that moment and scream out to the world what was really going on.

Harry and Ginny have always had marital problems. She’s never really forgiven him for dumping her at the end of sixth year, no matter how many times he tried to explain it. And can you blame her? As nice as it works out in fairytales and picture books, what girl wants to be told ‘Oh, sorry, I can’t date you until I’m done saving the world because you might get in the way’?

After the war, Harry took to drinking. Beer or wine, straight alcohol or liquor, muggle or wizard-made; he drank it all, and heavily. Lily had been conceived one night after he’d forced himself on Ginny in a drunken stupor. Around the time of that ‘happy family gathering’, things had gotten much worse. Ginny had spent many a night on my couch, afraid to go home and face her husband. As it was, the wizarding cameras couldn’t catch all the bruises she’d cast a glamor spell on.

I remember little James going on about Teddy and Victoire kissing at the station. That wasn’t a surprise to us, really. We’d known they were dating and approved of the match. What shocked us all was her bearing his child that spring, two months after he ran off with a muggle prostitute. She’s living with Fleur’s sister now, working as a maid. She didn’t ever graduate from Hogwarts.

While I love my children and my husband dearly, standing on that train platform didn’t seem real. I was bantering with Ron and Harry, wishing my farewell to the children, but my mind kept straying down the platform to where my other child stood. Ron was working and too busy to come to the hospital when Rose and her brother were born. And how glad of that I am. Rose looked like me from birth, but her brother was pale and blonde. As sure as I am that Ron has cheated on me numerous times in the past twenty-odd years, I know he never found out about Draco and I’s relationship. We were careful- and who’d believe it anyway? Granger, Harry Potter’s best friend, cheating on her husband with their second-most hated enemy? We haven’t spoken in years, and neither have I gotten to watch my beloved Scorpius grow up.

But I can’t tell that to the world. They wouldn’t believe me, and those who did would be shocked and heartbroken to see their heroes unveiled. But to you reading this, remember. There’s always rain in paradise, and you get wet no matter how good an umbrella you have.

Dancing Under the Stars

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 07:29:36 GMT

Dancing Under the Stars
Pairings: Draco/Hermione
Rating: PG
Words: 460

Together, they danced through the night, watched only by the heavens.

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Swirling and floating in the cool summer air, the lilting tune of a waltz floated to the stars. Gliding over dark wood, a couple twirled under a canopy of white flowers. They danced in silence, becoming one with the music. Each pure note, each celestial tone was a jewel that rose from the world to rejoin its brethren. The delicate scent of roses wafted on the cool breeze, ruffling the hair of the dancers. Surrounded as they were by immortal beauty, the man thought that none of it could match the radiance of the woman in his arms.

Soft starlight sunk into her deep, coffee-colored hair as she spun under her partner’s arm. They moved together as one, her eyes shut, his barely open. With effortless grace they danced together, the lilac folds of her full skirt brushing against the dark silk her partner wore. Watched only by the heavens, there was a bond between the two so deep, so treasured, that it surpassed their physical bodies and bound their souls. They existed in perfect harmony; step for step, heartbeat for heartbeat.

Pulling his beloved into a grapevine step, the tall man savored the scent of her as it eddied around him. She did the same, brushing her fingers through his delicate blonde hair as she twirled back into his arms. The slow, ethereal melody wove into straight into their hearts, and mocha met the winter sky as their eyes opened and met. On a strain so sweet it brought tears to the woman’s eyes, the song ended. Still holding her gaze, he dipped her low to the ground, and then pulled her up into the tenderest kiss either of them had ever imagined.

Hermione’s fingers slid through her lover’s hair when she finally pulled away. Wrapping her arms around the man in front of her, she rested her head on his strong chest. His arms went around her waist and pulled her closer.

“See, Draco? Wasn’t it worth it to learn to dance?” she whispered, and he kissed her in answer.

A new tune began, and Draco took the woman he adored into his arms again. Together, they soared. The threads of their love twined with the otherworldly beauty of the music, rising up into the dark sky to become the brightest star of all.

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The Evil Plan for Monopolizing of the World by Squirrels

Rain in Paradise

Dancing Under the Stars